Every jungle has a history. But not every beast remembers.
Long before thrones, ballots, slogans, and scandals, there was a vast land in the western belly of the African continent – a place of gold, rivers, thick forests, and proud beasts.
They called it Agyakrom.
It was not yet a republic.
It was not yet even a country.
It was a patchwork of powerful animal clans – Asante Porcupines, Ewe Antelopes, Mole-Dagbani Buffalos, Fante Octopuses, Ga jackals, and many more – each with their own kings, traditions, markets, shrines, and seasonal drumbeats.
They lived not in utopia, but in order.
The rivers flowed with rhythm.
The forests echoed with proverbs.
The elders ruled with stools, not scrolls.
And then – the hunters came.
The Coming of the Hunters and Gatherers
No one knows exactly when the first Hunter ship hit the shores. But the river whispers tell of the time when strange, light-skinned creatures – two-legged, clothed in iron and greed – arrived with crosses, coins, and chains.
They came bearing gifts: mirrors, rum, muskets, and the Holy Scroll.
But beneath their cloaks were ledgers.
The jungle called them The Gatherers.
Because that’s what they did.
They gathered:
• Gold from the Lion caves,
• Ivory from the forest bones,
• Palm oil from the Monkey Groves,
• And worst of all, beasts themselves – from the weakest cubs to the strongest buffaloes.
They said they had come to civilise.
But civilisation came with shackles.
For over three hundred rainy seasons, Agyakrom watched its children carried across oceans.
And when the chains were finally lifted, the Gatherers returned – not with whips, but with Rule.
The Jungle Becomes a Colony
They called it a protectorate.
Then a colony.
Then a gold coast – not because of the coast, but because of the gold.
They drew borders like scratch marks on a termite map.
They made laws in languages no beast spoke.
They crowned chiefs they could control.
They introduced currency, courts, and new religion – leaving confusion and conversion in equal measure.
The Jungle Parliament? Replaced by District Commissions.
The beast customs? Replaced by colonial codes.
The jungle’s soul? Traded for infrastructure and flags.
Agyakrom, the free land of many tribes, became a colony.
And the beasts began to forget they were once sovereign.
But as every wise monkey knows:
You can cage a lion, but you cannot silence the growl forever.
The Rise of the Roaring Beasts
By the early 20th century, the jungle began to stir.
Young beasts – some educated abroad, some trained in the colonial classrooms, others shaped by the fireside wisdom of their elders – began to ask dangerous questions.
“Why must we fetch water for their baths while our rivers run dry?”
“Why must our cocoa feed their children, but not ours?”
The great independence struggle was born.
JUNGLE WISDOM OF THE DAY
A Beast that forgets where it came from will never know where it is going
Watch Out for Episode 2: The Struggle for Independence
Dr. Asiamah's Gazette 